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What's New in BeOS
 BeOS Release 4.5

 

This document provides a summary of the new and changed features that can be found within the latest version of BeOS. This document lists the differences between BeOS Release 4 and BeOS Release 4.5; see the BeOS Product Datasheet for more information about all of the features of BeOS.

Except where otherwise noted, the changes listed below are identical on the Intel and PowerPC platforms.

This list is current for the BeOS Release 4.5, as of June 18, 1999.

Quick links to sections on this page:

> Summary of Changes
> User-Level Changes

Links to other useful BeOS information:

> BeOS Product Datasheet
> BeOS Specifications
> BeOS Ready Systems

 

Summary of Changes

Hardware Support Changes

Major Software Changes

Miscellaneous Changes

 

User-Level Changes

"User-level" changes are those changes people will notice just using BeOS. These are feature changes, additions, improvements, bug fixes, and the like that you don't need to be writing code to stumble across. We also include things that only a developer will really touch or see directly, but which have an affect on things that might be visible to the end user.

Note that a few of the changes described here are similar to support that was available with Release 4, with "experimental" software. The versions included here are revised and improved from those versions. Unless specifically noted, everything listed below is considered "supported" rather than "experimental."

Hardware Support Changes

  • Intel Architecture platform support

    BeOS Release 4.5 is the third major release of BeOS for Intel Architecture. We've again expanded our range of hardware support, both the core systems on which you can install and run BeOS, and the add-in hardware (ISA and PCI cards, etc.) which BeOS will recognize and make use of.

    Below is a list of the changes (improvements) to our Intel Architecture hardware support. If you are interested in knowing the full range of hardware which is supported by BeOS Release 4.5, see the BeOS Ready Systems -- Intel list.

    Installation and booting

    • The BeOS CD is now bootable. Throw your floppy drive in the trash...

    • Certain bugs in the BeOS Special Edition of PartitionMagic have been fixed.

    • The BeOS Installer interface has been revised to be simpler to use. We've also fixed a few bugs, and tried to make selecting the right partition for installation just a bit easier.

    • The BeOS boot loader has been significantly improved. In addition to the nicer interface, there are also now additional options for enabling and disabling certain features of BeOS. Even better, you can now save these settings, instead of having to configure them every time you boot BeOS. Just check out the revised boot menu, you'll see what this means.

    • The boot process is faster (yes, faster, as much as two times faster), and there are groovy boot graphics with a progress indicator to tell you where you are in the boot process. In fact, you can now enable debugging output to the screen while you're booting, so you can see exactly where you are. (Don't show this to your mother.)

    Platform Support

    • We've fixed a few bugs that prevented BeOS from running on many systems. We've also worked around many bugs in system BIOSes which also prevented BeOS from running (particularly on multiprocessor machines). The result is that many systems which could not boot BeOS should work now.

    • We've added support for additional processors, chipsets, and motherboards. Again, the range of systems on which BeOS will run should be significantly broadened.

    Graphics

    • We updated a few graphics drivers, and added a few others. See the BeOS Ready Systems -- Intel list for full details, but here's a list of the new drivers:

      • New Intel i740 2D graphics card driver
      • New Voodoo 3 2D graphics card driver
      • New driver for SiS 5598, 6326, and 620 on-board graphics
      • Improved RIVA TNT driver (fully supported), supports TNT2 also (2D only)
      • Improved Matrox G100/G200 driver
      • Improved ATI drivers
      • Improved NeoMagic driver (handles more versions of chipset: 128, 128XD, and 256AV)

    • The infamous "cursor not moving" bugs are fixed.

    • Experimental support for hardware accelerated OpenGL:

      • 3Dfx Voodoo 2 (via Glide 2.5x)
      • Voodoo 3, Voodoo Banshee (via Glide 3.x)

    • We also fixed a lot of bugs...

    Video Capture and Digital Cameras

    • Improved video input/output drivers for the Brooktree bt848/878/879 chipsets, supports cards from many manufacturers, including Intel, Hauppauge, Miro, Avermedia, IXMicro, US Robotics, and many others.

    • New support for digital cameras.

    Audio

    • We updated a few audio card drivers, and added a few others. See the BeOS Ready Systems -- Intel list for full details, but here's a list of the new drivers:

      • Added support for SoundBlaster PCI 64 / 128 audio cards
      • New support for Ensoniq AudioPCI audio cards
      • New ES 137x chipset driver
      • New ESS 1938 (Solo-1) chipset driver
      • New Yamaha YMF724 chipset driver

    Network

    • New support for DEC 21143-based Ethernet cards from Farallon and Addtron.

    • PCMCIA slot-based NE2000-compatible Ethernet driver, supports PCMCIA cards which are NE2000 compatible (D-Link DE-660, Linksys [8- and 16-bit], Kingston EtherRx).

    • PCMCIA support for some modems.

    IDE and SCSI

    • Reliability improvements to IDE.

    • SCSI SIMS now dynamically loaded

    • Totally rewritten Symbios SCSI driver (fully supported)

    Universal Serial Bus

    • The first version of our USB implementation makes its debut in BeOS Release 4.5:

      • Intel Architecture only
      • Supports keyboards, mice, and all USB hubs
      • Supports USB-connected BeOS Ready printers

    Printing

    • New transport layer architecture dramatically increases supported configurations. Basically, a BeOS Ready printer can now be connected to your system using any of the following methods, rather than being hardcoded for a specific interface:

      • Parallel (Intel Architecture)
      • Serial
      • AppleTalk
      • USB (Intel Architecture)
      • Microsoft Network (CIFS only, experimental)
      • Print to file

    • Dramatically improved Epson printer driver:

      • IEEE1284-compliant (feedback on paper and ink status)
      • Faster
      • Sylus Photo support (6 color cartridges)
      • New color matching
      • Interface improvements, bug fixes

  • PowerPC platform

    Important Note: BeOS still won't run on Apple's "G3" systems, but the limitation is our knowledge of Apple's system design, not of the PowerPC 750 microprocessor. This is knowledge that only Apple can give us, and Apple has consistently refused our requests. You can read more in the BeOS FAQs.

    That's not an answer we like giving when people ask (and they ask a lot), but it's where we're at. Please read the FAQs before sending further questions or suggestions on this issue. Thanks for understanding.

Major Software Changes

  • The Media Kit Matures

    The star of the show in BeOS Release 4.5 is the Media Kit. By far the most effort and engineering hours went into the Media Kit for this release, and it shows. Probably half of the changes in R4.5 were for the Media Kit, in one way or another. Here's a summary:

    • Major performance improvements

      Major portions of the internals of the Media Kit were rewritten with an eye for speed and reliability. It's hard to quantify the difference, but you will definitely be able to do more with less (processing time).

    • Media file formats support

      Built-in support for many industry standard media file formats, including:

      • MPEG
      • QuickTime
      • AVI
      • WAV
      • AIFF
      • AU

    • Video encoding/decoding support (codecs)

      Built-in support for many industry standard video encoding formats, including:

      • MPEG-1
      • Indeo 5
      • Cinepak
      • PJPEG
      • MSVideo (CRAM)
      • MS-RLE
      • Apple Video (RPZA)

    • Audio encoding/decoding support (codecs)

      Built-in support for many industry standard audio encoding formats, including:

      • ulaw
      • IMA4
      • MS-ADPCM

    • New MediaPlayer application

      Yes, BeOS finally has a separate application for playing media files. MediaPlayer supports playing any audio or video file that is supported by the Media Kit. Want to add support for new codecs? Just pop 'em into place for the Media Kit, and MediaPlayer will start using them immediately.

      MediaPlayer also has some nice features for scrubbing and looping, you'll enjoy playing your movies on BeOS.

    • New TV application

      Another Media Kit-based application, this one allows you to watch live (or recorded, if you hook up a VCR) video directly off your video capture hardware.

    • New CodyCam application

      Another Media Kit-based application, this one allows you to capture at regular intervals images from your video capture hardware, and upload them to an ftp or web site. This is an amazingly easy-to-use WebCam application. We even include the source code!

    • New Camera application

      An application that talks to your digital camera, and makes it easy to copy pictures from the camera to your computer. So simple and easy-to-use, you won't realize you're using special software.

    • New SoundRecorder application

      Another Media Kit-based application, this one allows you play and record sounds. The groovy interface makes it fun to record sounds off any audio hardware supported by the Media Kit.

    • The Amazing 3DSound application

      3DSound began life as a demo application with one goal in mind: knock people out. This application can make even the most skeptical viewer take a second look, and shows the true advantages of BeOS over those other platforms.

      Now 3DSound has been rewritten into a real, full application. 3DSound makes it easy to sequence and mix digital audio tracks together, using a natural, realtime 3D soundstage interface that you can understand in 2 seconds. After you've created your amazing sound production, save it to a WAV file for others to hear. We've even included a few sample 3DSound projects, so you can see and hear and play, even if you're not an aspiring recording engineer.

    • New Media preferences application

      The Media preferences application replaces the separate Audio and Video preference applications from Release 4. This consolidates their functionality, and adds a few more configuration options.

    • New sound volume Replicant

      Part of the new Media preferences application is a new volume control Replicant that you can have in your Deskbar. Handy!

    • Bt848/878/879 video input Node

      A Node is something that developers use to write software more easily. This video input Node will make it easy for developers to support video input in almost any application. Fun for the whole family.

    • New GameSound Kit

      Not directly usable by end-users, this new Kit was created at least in part specifically to make it easier to port games to the BeOS, based on our own experiences porting an unnamed (but widely-rumored) first-person shooter game. We think you'll like that!

    • Additional API simplifications, improvements, and bug fixes

      Again, while not for end-users directly, these improvements make it much easier for developers to write jaw-dropping software that uses the Media Kit. Trust us, you'll like it!

    • Kernel timing and thread scheduling improvements

      Way, way not for users, this basically means that things that need to happen in realtime do happen in realtime. You'll notice this most when working with realtime sound or video effects. This is a primary advantage of BeOS over other platforms. For developers who want to know the details, thread scheduling latencies are now down to 250 microseconds (an exceptionally low number) and there is kernel-level protection to keep driver code from interfering with that number.

  • Tracker improvements

    Even though the entire Tracker engineering team worked pretty much full-time on the Media Kit, they still found time to make a few improvements to the most-used application on BeOS:

    • New Zip-O-Matic add-on

      The MakeArchive Tracker add-on is dead, long live Zip-o-Matic! This Tracker add-on makes zipping up your files easier than every before: just select and Zip! Zip is the best archive format for BeOS, because it compresses files well, and more importantly, it preserves files' BeOS attributes.

    • Drag-and-Drop queries

      You can now Drag-and-Drop BeOS queries into and out of the Find panel, making it very easy to modify existing searches, and save your new ones in just the right place.

    • Many bugs fixed

      Yes, as solid as the Tracker is, it still has bugs. But many fewer in Release 4.5 than ever before. Track on, dude.

  • NetPositive improvements

    NetPositive 2.1 improves on the version in Release 4 (version 2.0.1) in some useful ways:

    • SSL 40-bit support for encrypted, safe Internet transactions (128-bit pending approval)
    • PNG graphics support
    • A few more character encodings for foreign language web pages
    • Performance improvements
    • Some new preferences
    • Many bug fixes, increasing the number of web sites NetPositive works with
    • JavaScript support (experimental, separate installation)
    • QuickTime player removed, replaced by MediaPlayer

  • Networking improvements

    For BeOS Release 4.5, we've refined various aspects of networking. With one exception, there are no major changes, just nice improvements, but it still makes for a noticeably better networking experience. Here's the scoop:

    • The World-o-Networking (experimental) is a Microsoft Networks (CIFS) client that allows your BeOS system to fully participate in a Windows networking environment. You can also connect to Linux systems running Samba. The main features are:

      • Access shared Windows (or Samba) volumes
      • Print to shared printers
      • A BeOS file system add-on allows you to browse your local network using the Tracker, mount servers and copy files, all with the same Tracker interface you know and love
      • cifsmount command line tool

    • Dial-Up Networking has improvements to its interface, to allow you to create settings based on your location, and to create and edit custom modem strings.

    • PPP auto-dialing is once again available, and works much better now, thank you very much.

    • Many TCP/IP and PPP bugs were fixed.

    • New C++ networking API for developers.

  • Developer tools improvements

    We've made some nice improvements to our development tools, especially the IDE (integrated development environment). Here are the highlights:

    • Many BeIDE improvements, including:
      • Supports Be Book documentation lookup
      • Supports external editors, like Pe or Eddie
      • Grep helper in Find panel
      • Many interface improvements
      • Many bug fixes
    • New PowerPC compiler and libraries
    • Improved BDB debugger (Intel Architecture)

Miscellaneous Changes

  • New TeamMonitor widget

    Hit Control-Alt-Delete and you'll see the new TeamMonitor widget, which allows you to terminate software that's running on your system. Better than force quit, this actually works!

  • New ScreenSaver preferences application

    Based on the outstanding Blanket, the new ScreenSaver application is, well, a screen saver. It's still modular, and comes with some new modules by Be engineers. It also has a new API for developing modules. Very cool!

  • Printing preferences and interface improvements

    Along with the low-level transport architecture re-write, we did a complete overhaul of the interface for setting your printing preferences, and managing your print jobs.

  • Devices preferences application improvements

    The Devices preferences application interface is improved, shows more information about devices, and you can now enable, disable, and configure devices. Very useful if you're got to get in and twiddle with the hardware.

  • Boot preferences application now PowerPC only

    Bootman handles all the chores on the Intel Architecture side, so no need for Boot anymore.

  • New Mouse preferences application options

    The Mouse preferences application has a couple more options, Warping and Instant Warping, that you can enable when using the Focus Follows Mouse feature.

  • New PNG graphics Translator

    We've added a new graphics Translator, for PNG graphics, so all Translation Kit-aware applications can now read and write PNG graphic files.

  • OpenGL improvements

    As mentioned in the hardware section, OpenGL has been much-improved. In addition to the experimental support for hardware accelerated OpenGL, the software-only OpenGL is 20-30% faster than Release 4 (which was faster than Release 3, see a trend? ;-).

  • Documentation improvements

    Massive updates to the Be Book and significant additions to the BeOS User's Guide cover the changes that BeOS Release 4.5 brings to developers and users respectively. There's also a BeOS Release 4.5 User Release Notes document, that covers the new features in R4.5, with more emphasis on how to use them, rather than describing what they are.

  • Kernel improvements

    The main thing users will appreciate is the reduced memory footprint of the BeOS kernel, allowing it to run on systems with less RAM. Also nice are all the bug fixes. Developers will appreciate the much more accurate timing services, along with new timing services. There's also new API for drivers to read settings, which is what the bootloader uses to save "safe mode" settings across reboots.

  • Lots of new stuff in /optional

    A bunch of interesting things in the /optional directory of the BeOS CD, including a bunch of new media files, a VideoCD file system add-on, perl for BeOS, and a slew of third-party applications to try out.

  • Various other BeOS improvements and bug fixes

    As if the above was not enough, there were literally hundreds of other changes large and small. Most of these were bug fixes or additions that only developers will take advantage of -- except that they'll write better software faster, and that's something worth getting excited about!
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